Review & Giveaway: Ensnared by A.G. Howard

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

My Review

What a glorious end to an amazing series!! I really enjoyed it, but I’m very sad to see it go. I can’t believe I’ll never see Morph again :( I was so thrilled to jump back into the world that Howard creates! I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it. It’s sooo twisted…I love it! There were certain scenes where I was just like …..creeeeeepyyy…… and ok, I was a little disturbed. View Spoiler »Um, the talking punching bag of Jeb’s dad? Creepy! All of Jeb’s paintings were sooo cool, though! I love the idea of Red’s and Morpheus’s magic blending together to make Jeb’s. « Hide Spoiler MORPHEUS. OMG. How I love him!! As always, I was blown away by his depth of caring for Alyssa. There was absolutely nothing that he wouldn’t do for her! And most of all, he recognized her strength. As I mentioned in my review of Unhinged, he never doubted that she could handle herself. He didn’t save her all the time because he knew she could save herself. I loved that!!

“I finally have a secret of my own. Not so fun being on the other side of one, is it?” The slow burn of amusement warms his features. He leans in and whispers, “On the contrary, My Queen. I cannot imagine anything more delicious than peeling away your defenses, layer by layer, baring your precious….secret.”

View Spoiler »Um, and let’s not even talk about him making Alyssa lingerie out of his prom outfit. *dies* I should probably find that disturbing, but it’s actually kinda sexy O_O « Hide Spoiler And then we have Jeb. Oh, little Jeb. It’s no secret that I am NOT a Jeb fan. And in the beginning, I kind of hated him. He was really digging that hole! View Spoiler »It pissed me off that he believed for certain that Alyssa wouldn’t come for him, whereas Morpheus had faith in her. He was proud of her for finding a way. Then, the animosity that Jeb showed Alyssa, despite all that she’d gone through to get back to him, made me dislike him even more. « Hide Spoiler However, toward the end I do have to admit that he earned my grudging respect. *heavy sigh* I suppose he was alright in the end. (But Morpheus is still better!) View Spoiler »I loved how everything was handled with the final showdown! I was pretty darn shocked when they revealed that “Jeb” had his eyes and tongue cut out. I was like Wait, what?! No way. They’ll fix it somehow. Then he got thrown into the acid fountain, and I knew there had to be something else going on. No way would Jeb die! (And wait, do I actually care about that?! What is happening?!) I totally didn’t even think about his double! I also thought it was awesome that Jeb repainted Wonderland! « Hide Spoiler The ending made me cry a little! View Spoiler »HAPPY tears!! It was so beautiful, you guys! It’s so rare for a book to make me cry because it’s happy, not sad (um, someone dying). That gets bonus points from me! I thought it was perfect! Although, I can see where people could have a problem with it. Despite the fact that I loved it, I still have my reservations about it morally. It doesn’t quite sit well with me that Alyssa got the best of both worlds. It doesn’t work that way!! But this is fantasy and I do enjoy a HEA as much as the next girl does! « Hide Spoiler

Favorite quotes

Glory and deprecation – sunlight and shadows – the scuttle of a scorpion and the melody of a nightingale. Sister One’s description of him never seemed more apt. The breath of the sea and the cannonade of a storm.

17 Responses to “Review & Giveaway: Ensnared by A.G. Howard”

OOoh nice! I just started reading this one! I feel like after I’m done, I need to come back here and read all the spoiler portions of the review! But glad to hear you enjoy it! Though I’m quaking with fear over what happens at the end! I’ve heard “things”!!!

So I still haven’t read Unhinged (oops), but I’ll admit part of that is because I really dislike Jeb and I didn’t want to see Morpheus get cast to the side for that idiot. So I also kind of read the spoilers… and now I’m very thrilled with how it all works out and I’ll definitely be reading both books soon enough!

I’ve been putting this one off because of the negative reviews I’ve seen. To be honest, I really don’t like the ending. Yes, I read a spoiler! I couldn’t resist. I feel like the whole HEA wasn’t right, fantasy or not. It just felt so strange to me that it would end like that. Like you can’t please anyone. I would’ve actually been fine if Jeb got her even though I’m Team Morph or vice versa. What actually happened wasn’t for me so now I’m like “should i read this?”

Great review, though. I’m glad that there were parts outside the romance I can get excited about. ALSO THE LINGERIE THING OH MY GOSH

I read the first book and absolutely loved it! I just bought the second (on sale for Kindle!) and am going to read it ASAP, probably after I finish my current book! I absolutely love Morpheus as well. Great review! :)

I made my friend reading this series. she still reading splintered but she’s fast reader. I can’t wait to fangirling with her and want to know what she think when she read the ending of Ensnared *evil laugh

I’m so happy you liked this one! Unfortunately I didn’t like this one as much as I had hoped, but I’m going to miss the characters. If Howard could write a spin off series about Morpheus, I would die happy!

I’ve been excited to read this since it came out. I haven’t read it yet, but I can’t wait to read more about the wonderful characters. I feel the same of you. I love Morpheus and am so not a Jeb fan. I can’t wait to see how this ends.

Hey all!!! Greetings from Mexico, I am so exciting about this giveaway because I think it just saved my life. It’s nice that now I can get one more chance to win this beautiful book. I am trying to get it for unfortunately I’ve not paypal and I cannot read it till it come out here! Sorry if you don’t understand too much what I am saying. Oh, I couldn’t find yuor instagram to follow you :( Pleeeeeeeeeeease no spoileeeeeeeeeers:(! lol

Oh men, the ending.. I really don’t know how I feel about it. I guess I find it a bit lazy, the easy way out, but on the other hand I’ve never seen it before. I guess I just don’t understand Alyssa, because I don’t think I could have lived with this solution.

I haven’t read Unhinged yet and I’ve only finished Splintered about a month back after having it on my TBR list for so long. Splintered was pretty good and I loved the way the plot played out. By the looks of it, the Ensnared is an awesome finish to the series. Can’t wait to read Unhinged and Ensnared.

I have not read the first two books in this series but don’t worry, I am planning to. I’ve heard lot of great things about this trilogy so I am very much looking forward to read it. Your review is just amazing, very well-written. Anyways, the book covers are just stunning!